What festivals does this article describe? What are the customs of this festival?

Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month, also known as Lantern Festival and Spring Festival, is a traditional folk festival in China. The first month is the first month of the lunar calendar. The ancients called it "Xiao", and the fifteenth day is the first full moon night in a year, so the fifteenth day of the first month is called the Lantern Festival. Also known as the first lunar month, Lantern Festival or Lantern Festival, it is the first important festival after the Spring Festival. China has a vast territory and a long history, so there are different customs about Lantern Festival all over the country, among which eating Yuanxiao, watching lanterns, solve riddles on the lanterns and dancing dragons and lions are several important folk customs.

Common customs include:

Sacrifice the door and family

There were "seven sacrifices" in ancient times, which were two of them. The method of sacrifice is to insert poplar branches above the door, insert a pair of chopsticks in a bowl filled with bean porridge, or put wine and meat directly in front of the door.

Mouse chase

This activity is mainly aimed at sericulture families. Because mice often eat silkworms in large areas at night, it is said that they can stop eating silkworms by feeding them rice porridge on the fifteenth day of the first month. As a result, these people cooked a large pot of sticky porridge on the fifteenth day of the first month, and some even covered it with a layer of meat. They put porridge in a bowl and put it on the ceiling, corner and mouth where mice haunt, cursing that mice will not die a natural death if they eat silkworm babies again. According to the Chronicle of Jingchu, on the fifteenth day of the first month, a fairy descended to a family named Chen and said to them, If you can sacrifice to me, your silkworm will have a bumper harvest this year. Later, a custom was formed.

Send a children's lamp.

Short for "sending lanterns", it is also called "sending lanterns", that is, before the Lantern Festival, the bride's family sends lanterns to the newly married daughter's house, or ordinary relatives and friends give them to the newly married infertile family to add auspiciousness, because "lamp" is homophonic with "Ding". This custom exists in many places. In Xi city, Shaanxi province, lanterns are put on from the eighth to the fifteenth day of the first month. In the first year, a pair of palace lanterns and a pair of stained glass lamps were presented. I hope my daughter will be lucky after marriage and have children early. If the daughter is pregnant, in addition to the big palace lantern, one or two pairs of small lanterns should be sent to wish her a safe pregnancy.

Yingzigu

Zigu is also called Gucci, and in the north she is called toilet aunt and pit aunt. The ancient folk custom is to offer sacrifices to Ce Shen Zigu on the 15th day of the first month, and to offer sacrifices to silkworm and mulberry, which shows many things. Legend has it that Zi Guyuan was a concubine and was envied by her eldest daughter. On the fifteenth day of the first month, he was killed in the toilet and turned into Ce Shen. On the night of welcoming the daughter-in-law, people tie the portrait of the daughter-in-law with straw and cloth, and greet her in the toilet with pigsty at night. This custom is popular in the north and south, and it was recorded as early as the Northern and Southern Dynasties.

Walking sickness

"Walk through all the diseases" is also called swimming through all the diseases, dispelling all the diseases, baking all the diseases, crossing the bridge and so on. It is an activity to eliminate disasters and pray for blessings. On the Lantern Festival night, women meet and go out together. When they see the bridge, they will cross it, thinking that this can cure diseases and prolong life. Walking away from all diseases has been a custom in the north since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, some of which were carried out in the fifteenth, but most of them were carried out in the sixteenth. On this day, women dressed in festive costumes went out of their homes in droves, crossed the bridge for danger, went into the city, and knelt down to beg for their children until midnight.